March News

It feels like spring is just around the corner and the children are looking forward to digging in the garden. Through a generous donation from the PTA, Mrs. Cova has purchased some beautiful child-size gardening tools. She is moving ahead with her plans to work with classes to plant flowers and vegetables and teach them about gardening. Many thanks to the PTA for supporting her efforts and providing the children with the equipment they need.

Following on from the parent information evening about the STEPS programme (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting), Pregny is pleased to be hosting a series of workshops offered by Sarah Jane Keyser. The programme for parents of children ages 6-12 will run on (Tuesdays) March 17, 24, 31, April 21, 28 and May 5^th. The STEPS programme for parents of children 0-6 will run on (Wednesdays) April 22, 29, May 6, 13, 20 and 27^th. All sessions are two hours long and will run from 20:00 to 22:00. It may still be possible to register for these programmes if you have not already done so. Please contact Mrs. Keyser at skeyser (at) bluewin.ch.

I would like to alert you to the fact that we have had a complaint from Chateau des Penthes regarding cars parked in their parking lot all day. They are quite happy to provide overflow parking at arrival and departure times but they need all their parking spaces for their customers during the day. They have asked that we remind our parents that spaces are offered only for a few minutes whilst dropping off children at school. If you leave your car longer than that you may find your car ticketed or towed.

Pregny will once again participate in the clothing drive organised by the Mission Chrétienne. If you have clothing (children’s clothes or adult), bedding or towels (no duvets or pillows please) in good condition that you no longer need please put the clean items in a plastic bin liner, tie it tightly and bring it into school (Pregny or Saconnex) anytime from Monday, March 23 to Wednesday the 25^th. All clothing donated will be sent to families and orphanages in Eastern Europe. To help the children understand the important concepts of caring for others and sharing our abundance, perhaps you could involve them in the sorting process to choose things they might like others to have.

Our annual fund is creeping up aided by the donations of our Pregny parents who supported Mrs. De Salis’ efforts by purchasing holiday cards designed by the students. Mrs. De Salis has also arranged a visit from a company to measure the playground for a new piece of outdoor play equipment. We are hopeful that we will receive sufficient money from the annual fund to move ahead with this project. Sincere thanks to all our parents who have made contributions. The children will be so excited to have something new to play on.

http://www.marionnettes.ch

Spring is always a lovely, busy time of year in school. The children have had outings to the marionette theatre and will be visiting parks, museums, and farms in the coming weeks. The children will be observing the tadpoles turning into frogs at the pond next door and keeping science journals. Jacqueline Richard and Rosalina Patricio have organized a “spectacle” for the “semaine de la francophonie”. The children will be entertained by circus performers from Québec which should be great fun for all!

One last reminder about the playground at Pregny – it gets very muddy in spring so please send your children to school dressed in practical, washable clothes. Rubber boots and light jackets are also needed until the weather warms up. Classes will end on Friday, April 3^rd for spring break and resume on Monday, April 20^th.

Photos from Flickr: "Tulip Shoots After April Showers" by talekinker and "Brookstomping" by adwriter

February & March 2009

The first half of second term has gone by very quickly and we have had many things going on in school.  This week we welcomed the Geneva Police to school to offer instruction on road safety to our children.  The Police very much enjoyed the children, noting that they asked good questions and were very attentive and polite. 

Last Monday evening the School hosted a parent information evening on “Systematic Techniques for Effective Parenting (STEP).  We had a great turnout and a number of parents have expressed interest in having STEP sessions offered at Pregny in the evenings.  If you are interested in joining this group please contact Sandie Parker, School Secretary at Pregny and we will add your name to the list.  

The Year 1 and 2 children have very much enjoyed their first few ski outings.  The weather has been wonderful and they come back from the slopes tired but pink-cheeked and happy.   Thank you to parents for organising the children’s ski gear and passports and labelling all the equipment with their child’s name.  We have had one pair of skis go missing and I would like to ask your help in trying to locate them.  A Year 1 child has not had her missing skis returned and they may have been accidently taken home by someone who thought they were theirs.  Could you please check your child’s skis very carefully and if you have taken the wrong ones, please return them to the School Office. 

We welcomed a visitor this week from Hong Kong. Peter Kenny was formerly the Regional Manager for the Primary Years programme of the International Baccalaureate Organization in the Asia-Pacific region.  He is the currently the Head of a new IBO World School in Hong Kong and visited Campus des Nations to talk to children and staff about internationalism and action.  He led our staff meeting on Tuesday and left us with much to think about. He very much enjoyed his visit to Pregny and complimented staff on the wonderful atmosphere in the school. 

The School will be closed for term break from Monday, February 9^th to Monday, February 16^th inclusive.  February 16^th is a professional development day for all staff and we look forward to working with Sheryl Joseph on language and writing and Corine van de Wildenburg from the IBO on the Primary Years Programme.  Classes will resume as usual on Tuesday, February 17^th. 

Report cards will be sent home on Friday, February 27^th.  I would like to wish all of our families a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year and a restful term break.

December News

The Festival of Lights was a huge success - congratulations to the Nations PTA for organizing such a great, well attended event.

We have a number of initiatives underway at Pregny that I would like to tell you about:

Mrs. de Salis, a Pregny parent has offered to raise money for the Pregny playground equipment by offering holiday cards for sale, designed by the children. Each class will create a design for a holiday card and Mrs. de Salis is having them printed. There will be a pre-order form sent out soon if you would like to purchase cards to send to your loved ones during the holiday season. Samples will be posted in the School Office as soon as they are available. All profits will be donated to purchase playground equipment for Pregny. It is very kind of her to go to all this work so I hope that the school community will support her efforts.

Mrs. Cova Austin, another Pregny parent has tackled the job of organizing the children’s garden. It has been dubbed the Green Schoolyard and Mrs. Austin has negotiated free plants, compost and soil. The school has paid for raised boxes and paving stones and Mrs. Austin has worked tirelessly to improve the soil and organize some fun, educational activities for the children. She has even created a newspaper to let parents know about the activities being planned around the garden. Mrs. Austin is hoping to make this project self-sustaining and will be looking for interested parents to help out.

The United Nations Children’s Walk was a huge success with Pregny children raising 3,450 CHF. The UN Women’s Guild was so impressed that they are mentioning the Pregny children in their next magazine. Many thanks to all who supported this very worthy cause!

The Gift Boxes are on their way to deserving children in Eastern Europe. Pregny contributed 185 boxes thanks to the support of parents and staff. Your generosity will brighten the lives of many!




The French teachers, Rosalina Patricio and Jacqueline Richard, are teaching the children in Years 1 and 2 about the Escalade, a Genevois holiday connected, as all great holidays are, with an intriguing story and chocolate! The children will present a little play to their classmates in celebration of the Escalade story. The PTA has provided a chocolate Marmite for the children to break according to the tradition and best of all to eat!

To celebrate an important part of the local Swiss culture, Father Christmas, also know as our Director General, Dr. Tate will visit the school to wish the children a happy holiday and distribute gifts of oranges and bonhommes. To decorate the school for this happy event we will once again have a wishing tree. The children will be invited to create a wishing star to decorate the tree. Your child will bring home a star template to decorate as he or she chooses and to write their wish for the world on one side. It always very touching to read the children’s wishes for a better world and a great project for the parents of younger children to work on with their child.

We have just wrapped up a week of Parent-Teacher conferences which I hope you have found informative. Report cards are scheduled to be sent home on February 27th.

Celebrations of Learning have been held and are continuing through this term. It is wonderful to have so many parents join in the celebrations. The children are very pleased and proud to show their work to Moms and Dads.

Information about extra-curricular activities is scheduled to be sent home by Friday, December 5th. Activities will start the second week of school following the winter break. Some activities fill up quickly so please be sure to return the registration forms promptly to avoid disappointment. The Years 1 and 2 parents will also receive information about the ski programme. Please return your permission slips by the date requested by the Sports Coordinator, Keith Rhodes. There will be 4 ski days and one make up date in the event that a ski day is cancelled due to poor weather conditions.

Just a reminder that classes finish on Friday, December 19th promptly at noon. There are no extracurricular activities or after school care on this day so please collect your children from school at 12 o’clock or arrange for someone to meet your child earlier if your child travels home by bus.

photos: "Diyas" by Darshy; "Father Christmas" by Dunechaser; "Pumpkin" by keepps; "a la belle escalade" by Frabuleuse

Kids helping kids

On Friday September 26th the Pregny students from classes 1 and 2 took part in a sponsored walk at the United Nations, organized by the United Nations Women's Guild. We walked down the hill from school and were quickly admitted through the rather impressive security at the UN gate. We made our way to the front of the building, where the flags of all the United Nations members fly proudly. The area was colourfully decorated with blue and white balloons and there were some clowns entertaining the children.

After receiving two stamps for the walk down the hill the children set off on their laps of the flags with great enthusiasm, some walking, some running. We were all impressed by their stamina and their perseverance. All the children who participated wore their green T-shirts proudly and were a credit to the International School of Geneva.

At the end of the walk, the children received a snack and a drink and this was gratefully consumed back at school, after what seemed like a VERY long walk back up the hill to school.

In total, the children from Pregny raised 3,450 francs in support of the UNWG projects.

Novvember News

The children have settled in and are gaining in independence every day. I have enjoyed being interviewed by our Year 1 students as they learn more about Pregny and the people who work here in their “School is Cool” unit of inquiry. Year 2 students are busily sprouting beans and looking at the world of plants in their unit of inquiry. I would like to publicly thank one of our mothers, C. A., who has really worked hard to create a very comprehensive plan for the school garden. There will be winter wheat for the children to look at during the cold winter months and berries, flowers and vegetables for the spring and summer. She has recruited some eager parent volunteers to help with the composting and building of raised beds. This is such a great area of the school and much loved by the children.

Our central space has a fantastic new “totem pole” created by the children in the early years with the help of Mrs. Strebel, our Central Space assistant. The children have also enjoyed the beautiful autumn weather on walks to the park, visits to a farm and trips to visit the “big school” at Saconnex.

In the second half of term, we will hold Parent-Teacher interviews during the week of November 17-21. Teachers will post sign up sheets so that parents can request a mutually convenient time to discuss their child’s progress. Please be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to meet with your child’s class teacher and language teachers.

As always at this time of year, head lice do occasionally pop up. Our child welfare assistant, Aukje, recommends that parents regularly check their child’s hair, especially if you notice your child scratching or complaining of feeling itchy. This is something that needs to be dealt with as they spread easily but nothing to be ashamed of as head lice actually prefer nice, clean hair. If you need advice on how to deal with lice please ask Aukje.

Pregny will participate again this year in the “Gift Box” project. Children may fill a box (shoe box size is perfect) with basic items such as soap, toothpaste, crayons, markers, school supplies and little treats, cuddly toys or clothes. These boxes can be brought into school from November 10^th and all boxes will be collected by the charity on the morning of Friday, November 20^th and shipped to needy children in Eastern Europe. Over 3500 boxes were collected last year from the International School of Geneva and many children who would otherwise receive nothing received something very special through your generosity. I encourage all of you to help your child put together a gift box for a deserving child.

The Annual Fund will kick off soon and Pregny has suggested that donations be put towards a new piece of playground equipment. The children would love to have something to climb and play in with new soft surfacing around it to replace the old paving that has cracked over the years due to the tree roots. The new soft surfacing is flexible and can be applied to curve around the trees without damaging their roots and it provides a much safer play surface for our young children with fewer incidents of scraped knees and hands. We hope to raise 10,000 CHF towards this project.
During the term break there some work was done in the school. A French classroom hadsome minor renovations to the wall, a new locked outdoor storage area was installed at the side of the school for outdoor play equipment and a raised wall was built to enclose the stairwell at the end of the school nearest the parking lot to make it safer for our students. A new fibre optic cable is also being installed.

Keith Rhodes, the Sports Coordinator for Campus des Nations is finalizing the plans for the Year 1 and 2 ski programme and you will receive more information about that very soon. The children will have four lessons beginning in January and at the end take a test to attain a ski badge. The morning session is spent on the ski slopes with professional ski instructors; the children eat a picnic lunch and then enjoy some sledding in the afternoon arriving back at school by 3hr15. This is a fantastic way for the children to either learn new skills or hone existing skills and enjoy a bit of the local Swiss culture.

School Photographs

School photographs are online at www.schoolpix.co.uk for parents to access their children's photos. You will need your child's student number (look a the student ID card, or one of the school invoices) and then add the prefix CDNPIX to the number to view the correct photos.


For example, if John Smith has the student number 01234 the access code will be CDNPIX-01234. When the code is typed into the box, the photo will be shown and the order options will be displayed under a drop down menu. There's an example with the access number CDNPIX-1000834.

Prices include UK VAT. For parents ordering, paying and receiving their photos in Switzerland the VAT will be deducted from the total before payment is taken. Prices include postage costs.

For any questions, please contact Andy Faulkner, the photographer, at Pro Portraits International Ltd. andy@schoolpix.co.uk

Extra curricular activities and Important Dates!

Extra curricular activities will begin soon. Inscription forms will be made available electronically by the ECA Coordinator, Andres Carnevali. There will also be hard copies available from the School Office. Please be sure to fill in the forms and return them promptly to avoid disappointment, as classes fill quickly. You will receive a schedule of classes for the extra curricular activities which you should keep for future reference.

Year 1 and 2 students participate in a winter ski programme that begins in January after the winter break. The Nations Sports Coordinator, Mr. Keith Rhodes will send home information and dates for this soon. Children are taken to the ski hill for a series of lessons over the course of several weeks, during the normal school day.

Important Dates

There are a couple of important dates to remember so please note them on your calendar. On Tuesday, September 16 we will host our “Meet the Teacher” evening from 18:00 to 19:30. This is an opportunity to meet with your child’s class teacher to review the plans for the term. This meeting is for parents only. The school will offer a crèche for children whose parents are unable to make other arrangements, especially those of you who are new to Geneva. The crèche will be supervised by our After School Care Supervisor, Maria Dominguez with the assistance of several senior secondary school students. As there is a limited number of spaces please try to make your own arrangements if possible and leave these spaces for parents who do not yet know anyone in the area with whom they can leave their child. Inscription for the crèche can be arranged in the School Office.

PTA
The Parent Teacher Association will host a welcome BBQ for all our Campus des Nations families at the Saconnex building on Thursday, September 25 at 17:30. This is great fun for everyone so we hope to see you there!

All of us at Pregny look forward to a productive and happy year. I am always available to meet with parents should you have any questions or concerns. You can make an appointment with the School Secretary to see me at a convenient time for you or pop into my office.